The Pink Elephant Sketch Challenge

Happy Saturday. Since my last post, we have been very busy here. We had our DD's birthday party, our middle daughter came home for a visit. And our little one started school. So it's been very busy and hectic here in our home these past few weeks. Not to mention, DH has been laid off for 3 weeks now. So, with him home, I really don't get to play much. But today I took my morning and made a couple of cards for the sketch challenge over at The Pink Elephant. I had alot of fun playing with this. If you get a chance pop on over and check out their challenges they do every week. They are alot of fun. here's the sketch

I made this one using the sketch above. I needed a card for our little one to send her Grandmother. They went shopping, had lunch and even went and did their nails together. They both had a great time but I know Grandmom was abit worn out after her day. The inside is blank so our little one can hand write a note of thanks to her.

just a close-up of the Distress Crackle paint I used on the chipboard.

Here's the second card I made for the sketch. I was in a grunge Halloween mood..lol...I just love Halloween. I colored in this digi stamp (from Scrapping Doodles) with Copics and then did a layer of Vintage Photo Distress ink over top og the entire card.

Here's a card I made using my Pazzles Machine. It was one of the free clipart that comes with the program and I just welded a second piece to make a cutout card. I took my Big E off my table and put my Pazzles in it's place. I am determined to get to know this machine inside and out now.

The inside just says Happy Halloween.

Well thanks for stopping in. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Hugs from Charm City

TPE Color Challenge--Happy Birthday

Good Morning---I can't believe that I already made this one for The Pink Elephant challenge. I needed a really fast card this morning and thought of their challenge that was just posted. We were to use brown, turquoise and neutral colors. I've had this paper from Cloud 9 Designs that fit perfectly. Although the photos don't do this card justice, it looks so much better irl... (You can click on the photos for a better view)

I used the birthday Cuttlebug embossing plate and sandpapered the embossed part. I really need to use that machine more to. I also used the skull from Tim Holtz' grungeboard and added Distress Crackle paint to that. The starburst brad is one of my favorites right now from Karen Foster. They are just soo fun and adds some great texture. I also pierced holes around the card and circles and roughed up the edges for a distressed look.

the inside view

just alittle closer view of the crackle skull. I just love this stuff and always love the chance to use it on something....lol...(even my bathroom walls--the real stuff though)....

Well have a great day and stop on over at The Pink Elephant and play along with the challenge this week. They have the best challenges and the Design Team totally ROCKS!!!! Thanks again ladies for another great challenge!!!! Hugs from Charm City

The Pink Elephant Challenge

Happy Sunday everyone. I have to make this a quickie. DH is on my behind about gettin outside and "takin care of business"...I didn't think I was going to make this weeks challenge over at The Pink Elephant, but I just squeezed this one in. The challenge was to use 2 brads, a flower and pattern paper. This is what I came up with. I have to say though, I just love- love- love these stamps from Starving Artist. I know they are last years designs, but they are kind of new to me. I just picked them up at the convention in Ocean City this summer and have adored them ever since. If you get a chance, hop on over there and check out what they have. They are just the cutest little stamps you've seen. They also have a very inspiring design team. The inspiration came from Michelle Zindorf. I'm so trying to make stamped cards and new techniques and I find her very inspiring. She is one lady who totally ROCKS. Take some time and visit her blog to. You won't be disappointed. The flower is 2 circles and I just cut slits and grunged up. I also added a third circle to the center and added my 3 brads. I couldn't find any pattern paper that I liked, so I took this yellowish/orangish pattern paper from Cosmo Cricket and added brushed corduroy distress ink to it to mute the color some. That is what I made the flower from to. This is the inside view. I'm thinking I'll send this one off to Aunt Rene (who is 92yrs old) this year for her Halloween card. I think she'll get a kick out of it... Well, I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday. Try to stay cool. It's another skorcher out there today for us here. Hugs from Charm City...

2S4Y--Kazon #32--Grandma's Secret Cookie Recipe

Happy Saturday everyone. Here's a card I made this week for Kazon's sketch over at 2S4Y. I had alot of fun making this card. I thought this would be a fun way to send Grandma's secret cookie recipe to our DD that lives in Michigan. I used one of those coin envies that you get from the stationary shop. The stitching around the edges didn't turn out so good, but I kind of like it. It reminds me of it being aged by the stitching falling out. Thanks for a great sketch to play with Kazon.

I made a double sided pocket to go inside the envie to hold the ingredients on one side and the how to on the other side.

I have to show you these really (I think) cool photos that I made using a couple programs. Next week is DD's birthday. We decided to get her her own digi camera. This morning I opened the box and some software came in it. I wanted to load everything so when she got her camera she would be ready to go. Well, there was this really cool program called Morpheus on it. So I started playing around with an old photo just to see what it would do. I just love it. I am invisioning myself using this program alot to distort photos...lol...the first photo I made using the program. The other photos I used Paint Shop Pro on top of the first photo using different effects that come with the program. I have been up since about 2am this morning and this is what I have been playing with. ...lol...click here and you can download a free trial version of this software. Just a little tidbit, I did notice that it took the photo and did an automatic sizing. I had to go into the timeline drop down menu at the top and changed it to the biggest size available to be able to print a nice size photo. You can save to avi files, animation or just a plain jpeg. There are other ones there to, but these were the one's that I was interested in. So if you try this software out, I'd love to see what you make with it. It's really alot of fun to play with.

above photo is the original

above photo is how I distorted it using the Morpheus program

the above photo I used pencil in the effects menu using Paint Shop Pro. I also added starbursts and sunlight to the second layer before changing it to pencil...

above photo I used topography in the effects menu using Paint Shop Pro

Thanks for stopping in this morning and I hope you all ahve a lovely weekend. Hugs from a very muggy Charm City

The Pink Elephant and Caardvarks Challenges

Happy Sunday!!!!! Just a quick post today. The cards below I made for the challenges over at the Pink Elephant (sketch challenge) and Caardvarks (make a baby/bridal theme card/project) sites. I really enjoy their challenges and have missed playing along these past few weeks. So I thought I would sit down and make these cards....Enjoy!!! The stamped image is from Motivet Rubber Stamps...I just love all of their fun stamps that they offer and wanted to use this darling smiley little stamp to bring some sunshine on this dreary day here...Normally I don't use colors like these--so I am way out of my element---but she is just fun and I wanted to use some cheery bright colors. What do you think? Did I achieve it? The clear photo turns and snaps are from Tim Holtz' collection and the silver brads are from The Little Black Dress. I know the coloring is still off, but I'm still working on that... I used the Life is a Beach and Wedding Cricut carts for these cutouts. I also glued real sand onto cardstock, tore and then inked the edges. I have noticed there are more and more weddings happening at the beach than a traditional church wedding. This could be used for either a bridal party invite or even a wedding invite. Something simple but fun. Well I hope everyone has some sunshine going on in their part of the world today. It seems like we have been getting alot of rain here. Although we really do need it, I really need to get outside and finish my projects that I started for the "yearly birthday party" bash for our little one coming up in 2 weeks. So wish us luck....Hugs from Charm City

I'm Back....

It's been almost a month since my last post. If you are like my family and Me, summers are soo busy and hectic. Not to mention, my truck was in the shop for almost 2 weeks. Good 'ol Betsy needed a break. She was just to tired and worn...lol...but now she's back and running like tip top shape. ...I really missed her.

The baby is gettin soo big and "HAPPY"...he smiles and laughs at almost everything. I've been taking little videos of him on my camera. I want to make a dvd of all of the little clips of his first year. I thought this would be such a great thing for our daughter to have later down the road. They just went on vacation to South Carolina this past week and came back and asked us how we would feel if they moved there? Now, mind you, I would never stop any of my children from doing what they want. But it will sadden me if they actually do move there. We have 3 grandbabies that live in another state with our middle daughter. So we don't get to see them much. And now if our eldest daughter moves, then we will once again have another state to visit to be able to see them. Ohh the woes of being a parent.

On a lighter note, I was able to get in a couple cards and a layout....Enjoy...

This is our 3rd little grandbaby. I took this on a visit when they came here last summer. I brought in the ric rak from her little hat onto the layout.

I actually made this card for a challenge on Paper Craft Planet a couple weeks ago. I wasn't able to upload this to their site though. They challeged everyone for a no layers card. And this is what I came up with....

here's a stamp that I don't think I have ever used. One morning I just took it and made this card.

and here's a card playing around with a little stamp set that I have never used before either. The whole card is stamped, inked and colored in with Prisma's....

I wanted to say thank you to everyone that visits me everyday. Come back and visit again soon as I hope to have new projects up. I'm working on some new ideas using my big E for wood working. Have a Happy weekend...Hugs from a stormy Charm City...